“I was very excited on my first day. The teachers were all lovely, and very patient,” recalled Tan, who is 17 years old today.
Over the years, her passion for ballet intensified. There were days, Tan said, when she danced until her feet hurt – yet she never contemplated giving it up. “I just really love it.”
Today, Tan, who hails from Batu Pahat, Johor, is an Advanced 2 level ballet dancer with the Royal Academy of Dance, and has her heart set on becoming a ballet teacher so she can help build the next generation of young ballerinas.
To achieve her dream, she has begun assisting her ballet teacher, Ong Li Ling, in some of her classes.
Ong, founder of The Performing Arts School, has been teaching Tan ballet since she was four. She told FMT Lifestyle that the school had become like a “second home” for the little ballerina.
But soon, the long hours spent at school, followed by training, then ballet lessons proved too much for Tan. Home-schooling was an option as it afforded her more flexibility with her time. So in 2022, she gave home-schooling a shot.
However, being an only child in a single parent household, money was tight. And home-schooling was expensive.
“Although my mum will support me, I don’t want to burden her,” Tan said, adding that her mother works in the administration department of a car repair company.
So, Tan decided to earn her own money teaching part-time at The Performing Arts School. In this way, she was able to settle her school fees without troubling her mum.
She maintains a packed schedule: she teaches four classes a day from Mondays to Thursdays and at least six classes on Fridays and Saturdays. Her students, she added, are aged between four to 14 years old.
Tan said that planning her days well and being disciplined has helped her cope with her busy life.
“I created a schedule, allocating my mornings for study, afternoons for planning lessons for my students and evenings for teaching ballet,” she said, adding that she has classes with online tutors from Mondays to Thursdays and revises on her own after classes.
Late last year, Tan sat for three Cambridge International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) papers – English, science and mathematics. She will be sitting for another three – business, accounting and Malay – this year.
Tan also goes for piano lessons once a week and recently achieved a distinction – the highest level – for her Grade 5 piano examination with the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM) examination board.
She also learns other forms of dance such as Latin and plans to pursue a Certificate in Ballet Teaching Studies in the future.
Working part-time, Tan shared, has taught her how to value money more. It has meant that she can pay her own way even when participating in competitions. “I’ll need to buy a costume and pay for the registration fees, and this can cost more than RM500.”
For the Asia Talents Search 2022, organised by the International Celebrity Pageant Group, Tan was among the top seven contestants.
Ong said: “She really found herself when dancing, especially on the stage. She shines. She knows her goal and she has the determination to achieve it, no matter how hard the journey is.”
Independent, responsible, and mature beyond her years, Tan balances sheer tenacity with grace. “Persistence is the key to success,” she said.
“The joy of dancing is what I cherish the most. Every time I dance, it brings me happiness and serves as a way to express my emotions.”